while we're waiting for the hate mail from des moines, let's bring in michael hirsch, "national journal" chief correspondent, and ana palmer. welcome guys. michael, let me start with you. i'm confused about where things stand at this hour in iowa. if you look at the latest poll from iowa state university, it's got ron paul ahead with 28. newt gingrich at 25%. mitt romney at 18, and then on it goes. but the smartest pundits that i talk to, people like john heilemann at "new york" magazine or nate silver at "the new york times" act as if mitt really has it locked up by now. which is it, michael? >> i don't even think, you know, the iowans who are going to be attending the caucuses have any idea who's going to come out ahead. it's really -- could be anyone's vote at this point. and it goes back to your point about what is this state in the rather, you know, unusual caucus rules that determine the vote there, doing at the center of our political spectrum. and i think one of the fears that you hear, with paul now leading in the polls, is that between paul's lead, a guy who everyone knows who

michael hirsch is their chief correspondent. ow can any self-respecting leader in america or western europe stand before his or her people, as a governor, as an attorney, as a president, as a congressperson, a senator, or a prime minister, and explain to them that providing $30 trillion in value to subsidize a financial system that does not invest in our country, that does not lend to our country, and that is depriving our country of the exact investment that we are desperate for to create jobs and health, energy, education, and infrastructure, how can any leader in the west stand before their people and justify the statistics that we just reviewed? >> because they don't want to talk about them. you're the first person, actually, i know who's put those two figures next to each other, and it is extraordinary. it really explains a lot that's happened over the last several years. the unreconstructed nature of wall street, the fact that tim geithner and the obama administration did nothing to change the structure. it shows the extent